Wilderness.org - Dirty Air Acthttp://wilderness.org/taxonomy/term/2385
enMultiple Attacks on Clean Air Acthttp://wilderness.org/press-release/multiple-attacks-clean-air-act
<div class="field-group-format group_meta field-group-div group-meta speed-fast effect-none"><div class="field field-name-field-release-date field-type-datetime field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2011-03-15T01:00:00-04:00">Mar 15, 2011</span></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>
The following statement from The Wilderness Society&rsquo;s Director of Climate Policy David Moulton is in response to Congressional attacks on the Environmental Protection Agency.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;The attacks on the EPA today in Congress &ndash; the planned one by the House, and the sneak attack by the Senate &ndash; are driven by a commitment to ideology, an allergy to science, and a disregard for the public health. We need long term energy solutions that don&rsquo;t poison our air and water. Instead the Republicans in the House and Senate are doing the most extreme bidding of corporate polluters.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;The Republicans leading these attacks appear to have lost touch with what most concerns average families, channeling instead the desires of polluting industries.&nbsp; Clean air and clean water require following science not politics. EPA&#39;s implementation of the Clean Air Act has saved $21 trillion since 1970, according to nonpartisan estimates. EPA should be thanked, not vilified, for this remarkable result.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;Congress should adopt a &ldquo;more of what&rsquo;s above, less of what&rsquo;s below&rdquo; energy policy that focuses on more clean energy from wind and solar, and less from the dirty fossil fuels that pollute our air.&rdquo;</p>
</div></div></div>Tue, 15 Mar 2011 21:30:13 +0000104591 at http://wilderness.orghttp://wilderness.org/press-release/multiple-attacks-clean-air-act#commentsGalileo got an apology…what about us?http://wilderness.org/blog/galileo-got-apology%E2%80%A6what-about-us
<div class="field-group-format group_meta field-group-div group-meta speed-fast effect-none"><div class="field field-name-post-date field-type-ds field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Mar 18, 2011</div></div></div></div><div class="field-group-format group_image field-group-div group-image speed-fast effect-none"><div class="field field-name-field-content-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://wilderness.org/sites/default/files/styles/blog_full/public/legacy/profiler/472px-Justus_Sustermans_-_Portrait_of_Galileo_Galilei%2C_1636.jpg?itok=Bq55qBBZ" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-video field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"></div></div><div class="field field-name-media-description field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-credit field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>
The new majority of the House continues to amass a remarkable record of science denialism. On March 15th (<a href="/content/clean-air-act-should-beware-ides-march">the ides of March</a>) the House Energy and Commerce Committee, a political body of (mostly) non-scientists, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/us/politics/16epa.html?_r=1&amp;scp=4&amp;sq=epa&amp;st=cse ">voted to repeal the scientific consensus </a>that greenhouse gas emissions can be a danger to the public health.</p>
<p>
By a vote of 19-34, the Committee adopted the Upton bill (HR 910) to prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from taking science into account when considering how to protect the public from the potentially devastating effects of excess carbon pollution in the atmosphere.</p>
<p>
Even for a politician, this can be a dicey position to take.&nbsp; It makes one appear less than grounded in reality.<br />
During the debate, several amendments were offered by Democrats to test whether any Republicans on the Committee were willing to break with the orthodoxy from Chairman Upton (R-MI).</p>
<p>
Rep Waxman (D-CA) offered an amendment whereby Congress would accept the scientific consensus that the climate system is warming.</p>
<p>
No Republican voted for it.</p>
<p>
Rep. DeGette (D-CO) tried again, offering an amendment to accept the scientific consensus that climate change is occurring in large part due to human activity.</p>
<p>
No Republicans voted for that either.</p>
<p>
Rep. Inslee (D-WA) tried a third time, asking the Committee to accept the finding of the nation&rsquo;s premier environmental and public health agency that human-caused climate change is a threat to public health and welfare.</p>
<p>
Still no Republicans voted for it.</p>
<p>
In short, there were no obvious cracks in the GOP wall that is keeping facts from intruding on ideological fervor and political convenience.</p>
<p>
Galileo was invoked on both sides.&nbsp; Rep. Murphy (R-PA) suggested that Galileo&rsquo;s celebrated fight with the Catholic Church was an example of science discredited at the time eventually emerging as truth, and urged his colleagues to view climate skepticism in the same light.&nbsp; But Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) had the more logical &ndash; and apt &ndash; interpretation of Galileo&rsquo;s unwillingness to ignore science &ndash; that Galileo was confronting the orthodoxy of the Church, the Church was less interested in the facts than in maintaining the order of the day, and science be damned (literally!).&nbsp;</p>
<p>
In 1633, the Inquisition tried Galileo for his heresy and sentenced him to house arrest for life. In 1992 &ndash; 359 years later -- the Church issued a posthumous apology.</p>
<p>
If the Upton bill passes the House &ndash; and it appears it will &ndash; I wonder how long it will take the science deniers of today to get around to apologizing to the millions of climate refugees it is sentencing to suffer climate disruptions far worse than house arrest.<br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
<em>&nbsp;Portrait of Galileo Galilei, 1636 - Justus Sustermans (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)</em></p>
</div></div></div>Fri, 18 Mar 2011 16:25:02 +0000104624 at http://wilderness.orghttp://wilderness.org/blog/galileo-got-apology%E2%80%A6what-about-us#commentsThe Clean Air Act should beware the Ides of Marchhttp://wilderness.org/blog/clean-air-act-should-beware-ides-march
<div class="field-group-format group_meta field-group-div group-meta speed-fast effect-none"><div class="field field-name-post-date field-type-ds field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Mar 17, 2011</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-node-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/bios/staff/neil-shader">Neil Shader</a></div></div></div></div><div class="field-group-format group_image field-group-div group-image speed-fast effect-none"><div class="field field-name-field-video field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>
In the classic Shakespeare tragedy Julius Caesar, the titular Roman emperor meets his terrible fate with when the Roman Senate stabbed him 23 times.&nbsp; The Clean Air Act, and the EPA that enforces it, experienced a similar senatorial fate today, being blindsided by the Senate when Minority Leader McConnell unexpectedly attached <a href="/content/alphonse-gaston-and-mugging-epa ">an EPA-gutting bill </a>to a separate small business bill being debated on the floor.</p>
<p>
Unfortunately for the Clean Air Act, there were more than 23 knives out for it on that fateful day &ndash; 34 to be exact.&nbsp; Across the Hill, in a mostly party-line vote, the House Energy &amp; Commerce Committee voted 34-19 for a bill identical to the Senate amendment &ndash; stripping the EPA&rsquo;s ability to cut carbon pollution under the Clean Air Act.</p>
<p>
The attacks on the Clean Air Act aren&rsquo;t anything new &ndash; it has been a <a href="http://www.care2.com/causes/environment/blog/night-of-the-living-dead-zombie-policies-that-continue-to-walk-the-earth/">zombie bill </a>that keeps rising from the dead <a href="http://www.care2.com/causes/global-warming/blog/time-to-stop-the-dirty-air-act/ ">every few months </a>to threaten America&rsquo;s clean air and continue the status quo of allowing carbon polluters to dump their carbon waste into the air for free.</p>
<p>
The EPA is only doing what Congress told it to do when it passed the Clean Air Act in 1970.&nbsp; The Supreme Court ruled that carbon pollution was a pollutant that should be regulated under the Clean Air Act. Now Congress should let the EPA do its job, rather than trying to stab it in the back.</p>
</div></div></div>Thu, 17 Mar 2011 15:01:44 +0000104611 at http://wilderness.orghttp://wilderness.org/blog/clean-air-act-should-beware-ides-march#commentsAlphonse, Gaston and the Mugging of EPAhttp://wilderness.org/blog/alphonse-gaston-and-mugging-epa
<div class="field-group-format group_meta field-group-div group-meta speed-fast effect-none"><div class="field field-name-post-date field-type-ds field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Mar 7, 2011</div></div></div></div><div class="field-group-format group_image field-group-div group-image speed-fast effect-none"><div class="field field-name-field-content-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://wilderness.org/sites/default/files/styles/blog_full/public/legacy/profiler/Alphonsegaston.jpg?itok=0UXhxHWl" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-video field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"></div></div><div class="field field-name-media-description field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-credit field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>
The introduction of a bill by Rep. Upton (R-MI) and Senator Inhofe (R-OK) to block EPA from acting to protect the public health is the next step in a transparent strategy orchestrated by the fossil fuels lobby to put profits ahead of people.</p>
<p>
It reminds me of the classic Alphonse and Gaston comic strip, but with a twist.&nbsp;&nbsp; You may recall that neither Alphonse nor Gaston ever made progress because every time they came to a door, they would get paralyzed by excessive politeness, and nothing would be accomplished until they met some unfortunate end or another.</p>
<p class="rteindent2">
Gaston: &ldquo;You first Alphonse!&rdquo;&nbsp;<br />
Alphonse: &ldquo;No no, after you Gaston!&rdquo;</p>
<p>
In this case, we have the EPA, through the Obama Administration, inviting Congress to take the first step.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p class="rteindent2">
EPA: &ldquo;Congress, please take the first steps towards addressing the massive climate disruptions that are bearing down on our fine American landscape!&rdquo;</p>
<p>
And the response of Congress?</p>
<p class="rteindent2">
Congress: &ldquo;No, no, no EPA &ndash; we should, but we won&rsquo;t.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Unlike the comic strip, however, Congress also added, &ldquo;but if you do, we will knock you down and tie you up, and keep you from actually accomplishing anything.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
The Upton-Inhofe bill, if passed, would complete the mugging of our nation&rsquo;s chief public health protection agency.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Meanwhile, the public is vulnerable to polluters.&nbsp; The benefits of EPA&rsquo;s implementation of reasonable, economically-justifiable regulations under the Clean Air Act will be compromised, directly or indirectly, by Congress&rsquo;s attempts to substitute ideology for science.</p>
<p>
Here is a reminder of the ways in which Clean Air Act Regulation by EPA has benefited the public since 1970:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<strong>Saving tens of thousands of lives each year </strong>by reducing harmful pollutants that cause or contribute to asthma, emphysema, heart disease and other potentially lethal respiratory ailments.</li>
<li>
<strong>Reducing the harmful pollution</strong> from automobiles, industrial smokestacks, utility plants and major sources of toxic chemicals and particulate matter since the passage of the Clean Air Act of 1970.</li>
<li>
<strong>Saving Americans over $21 trillion dollars</strong> by keeping them out of hospitals, in schools, and on the job.</li>
<li>
<strong>Creating new industries and jobs</strong> that annually generate billions of dollars in revenue.</li>
<li>
<strong>Ensuring that benefits exceed costs by a staggering 40-1</strong> by implementing the Clean Air Act reasonably and responsibly.</li>
<li>
<strong>Proceeding with a measured phase-in of reductions</strong> in harmful carbon emissions, as required by the Supreme Court, so that the costs of complying will be dramatically lower than if you were to delay this much-needed public health protection.</li>
</ul>
<p>
The Upton-Inhofe bill will come to a vote this spring.&nbsp; We will alert you to this vote when it occurs so that your voice can be heard before members cast their vote.</p>
<p>
<em>Cartoon by&nbsp;Frederick Burr Opper; this image is in the public domain in the United States.</em></p>
</div></div></div>Mon, 07 Mar 2011 20:50:31 +0000104502 at http://wilderness.orghttp://wilderness.org/blog/alphonse-gaston-and-mugging-epa#commentsEPA moves forward on cleaning up carbon pollutionhttp://wilderness.org/blog/epa-moves-forward-cleaning-carbon-pollution
<div class="field-group-format group_meta field-group-div group-meta speed-fast effect-none"><div class="field field-name-post-date field-type-ds field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Jan 24, 2011</div></div></div></div><div class="field-group-format group_image field-group-div group-image speed-fast effect-none"><div class="field field-name-field-content-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://wilderness.org/sites/default/files/styles/blog_full/public/legacy/profiler/Palmer%2C%20Alfred%20T%20-%20Library%20of%20Congress.jpg?itok=YV3H3o1W" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-video field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"></div></div><div class="field field-name-media-description field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-credit field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>
This January&#39;s launch of the New Year wasn&rsquo;t like any other that came before it.</p>
<p>
On Jan.2, while many people were just switching gears from holiday schedules back to their five-whole-days-of-work-every-week, no-more-Christmas-cookies-in-the-break-room, regular work schedule, something a bit more momentous was happening elsewhere - America began treating carbon pollution like what it is: pollution.<br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
On&nbsp;that day,&nbsp;the Environmental Protection Agency finally began regulating the carbon output from new or retrofitted power plants as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act.&nbsp; For 40 years, the Clean Air Act has been used to clean up our skies, reducing the threat of acid rain,&nbsp;&nbsp; improving our air quality, and protecting the public health and welfare.&nbsp; Now, in the face of one of the gravest threats to public health that humanity has ever faced, the EPA is beginning the process of reducing that threat.</p>
<p>
The EPA action to reduce carbon pollution has been a long time coming.&nbsp; For years the previous administration refused to acknowledge its legal obligation and authority to protect the public from excess carbon emissions.&nbsp; It took a Supreme Court decision to settle the legal issue, and a new Administration to find the political will to do the right thing.</p>
<p>
The Wilderness Society has been <a href="/content/murkowski-offering-murky-deal-our-air">fighting for this </a>basic public health <a href="/content/night-living-dead">for a while</a>.&nbsp; However, without any Congressional action to adopt a comprehensive climate bill, or any new energy policy to roll back&nbsp;the free dumping of carbon pollution into the air by industry and powerplants, the public has now come to rely on EPA as the public health protector of last resort.</p>
<p>
Limiting the amount of carbon in our air is critical to fighting climate disruption.&nbsp; Rising tides, melting glaciers, and out-of-control beetle infestations will only get worse with a warming world.</p>
<p>
One thing that didn&rsquo;t change on Jan. 2 was how the EPA regulates the emissions from biomass facilities.&nbsp; Unlike coal-fired power plants, where the fuel is mined from the ground and not replaced, responsible biomass facilities use tree limbs and other timber by-products that can grow back &ndash; because they are trees.</p>
<p>
This reforestation process could be done in a way that doesn&rsquo;t add a net amount of carbon pollution to the air over time&ndash; since the trees would gradually <a href="/content/lungs-earth-top-10">absorb carbon pollution</a>, they could eventually re-absorb all of the carbon that resulted from burning the previous trees.</p>
<p>
Unfortunately, not all <a href="/content/protecting-our-forests-biomass-tailoring-rules-epa">biomass operations are created equal </a>&ndash; studies have shown that if the sourcing and re-growth of trees and other plant material aren&rsquo;t done the right way, it can actually be <a href="/content/biomass-rarely-carbon-neutral-energy-option">worse for the atmosphere than burning coal</a>.</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/partner/michael-best-friedrich-llp/news/article/2011/01/epa-defers-ghg-permitting-requirements-for-biomass-industries">The EPA gave a 3-year deferral to biomass facilities from the carbon pollution regulations </a>&ndash; a delay that could contribute to serious problems for some of&nbsp; our forests and our climate if emissions are ignored.&nbsp; Some states are providing strong incentives for new energy development through Renewable Portfolio Standards, and biomass often benefits from a very broad definition &ldquo;renewable&rdquo; &ndash; in one case allowing trees that are <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/stories/2010/10/11/daily18.html">cut down for real estate development to be considered &ldquo;renewable,&rdquo;</a> even though in their place will be a housing development, strip mall, or parking lot.&nbsp; With renewable portfolio requirements ratcheting up over time, the three years of EPA&rsquo;s &ldquo;free pass&rdquo; for biomass could see the construction of dozens of new plants that will continue operating for several decades, despite clear evidence that some of them will harm the climate rather than help.</p>
<p>
Despite the biomass decision, the EPA&rsquo;s New Year&rsquo;s Resolution to begin protecting the public health from the catastrophe of carbon pollution is a good one.&nbsp; Whether it can keep its resolution in the face of a looming assault from industry remains to be seen.&nbsp; The Wilderness Society will be fighting to ensure that its decisions follow science, not politics, in the days ahead.</p>
<p>
<em>Photo by Alfred T. Palmer courtesy of the Library of Congress</em></p>
</div></div></div>Mon, 24 Jan 2011 23:51:40 +0000104111 at http://wilderness.orghttp://wilderness.org/blog/epa-moves-forward-cleaning-carbon-pollution#commentsCalifornia's Prop 23 could set state back as a global clean-tech leaderhttp://wilderness.org/blog/californias-prop-23-could-set-state-back-global-clean-tech-leader
<div class="field-group-format group_meta field-group-div group-meta speed-fast effect-none"><div class="field field-name-post-date field-type-ds field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Oct 23, 2010</div></div></div></div><div class="field-group-format group_image field-group-div group-image speed-fast effect-none"><div class="field field-name-field-video field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>As the urgency to take action on climate change increases, Texas oil companies are seeking to mislead California voters with a ballot measure that would gut California&rsquo;s landmark greenhouse gas legislation.</p>
<p>The ballot measure, Proposition 23, would effectively repeal California&rsquo;s bipartisan Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32), which requires that the state decrease carbon pollution by approximately 25 percent by 2020. As <a href="http://cleaneconomynetwork.org/sites/default/files/Prop_23_GoingBackwards.pdf">detailed in a report by the Clean Economy Network</a>, California has experienced a boom in clean technology since passage of AB 32 as companies anticipate the need to find new ways of reducing carbon dioxide emissions and providing clean energy. In response to the Act, utilities and manufacturers are retooling, clean energy companies are sprouting up, and wind, solar and bio-energy companies are developing products they can market in California and to the world.</p>
<p>If California takes a step backward by passing Proposition 23, the state risks losing its position as a global leader in clean technology and renewable energy. Hundreds of thousands of clean tech jobs could be lost. Of even greater concern, passage of Proposition 23 would establish a negative precedent, rolling back progress on climate change at the very time that further steps to reduce carbon pollution are urgently needed.</p>
<p>Proposition 23 is funded largely by Texas oil companies that stand to profit if the Global Warming Solutions Act is stymied. On the other hand, if Proposition 23 passes, carbon pollution will continue to increase with a wide range of ill effects to public health and public lands, and California&rsquo;s clean energy economy will be undermined.</p>
<p>Please join The Wilderness Society and a broad <a href="http://www.stopdirtyenergyprop.com">coalition of public health, business, policy, and environmental organizations</a> in opposing Proposition 23.</p>
</div></div></div>Sat, 23 Oct 2010 16:44:05 +0000103671 at http://wilderness.orghttp://wilderness.org/blog/californias-prop-23-could-set-state-back-global-clean-tech-leader#commentsKeeping the Clean Air Act from having a mid-life crisishttp://wilderness.org/blog/keeping-clean-air-act-having-mid-life-crisis
<div class="field-group-format group_meta field-group-div group-meta speed-fast effect-none"><div class="field field-name-post-date field-type-ds field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Sep 15, 2010</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-node-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/bios/staff/neil-shader">Neil Shader</a></div></div></div></div><div class="field-group-format group_image field-group-div group-image speed-fast effect-none"><div class="field field-name-field-video field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>If pop culture has taught us anything &ndash; and these days, it has probably taught us all too much &ndash; it is that as a person enters their fourth or fifth decade they experience something called a mid-life crisis. Sports cars, trophy spouses, and comically bad wardrobe and hairstyle choices have been known to follow.</p>
<p>Now the Environmental Protection Agency is entering its fourth decade, turning 40 years old this week, and is joined by a landmark piece of environmental legislation, the Clean Air Act.</p>
<p>The Clean Air Act has been instrumental in lowering the amount of toxic chemicals floating in the air &ndash; pollutants such as lead, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and other health hazards. Now it will face a bigger challenge: being used to curb climate-change-causing greenhouse gas pollution in the air.</p>
<p>The effects of climate change are being felt across the globe &ndash; heat waves, floods, failing crops, and other disasters.&nbsp;Thousands of <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jkeClh5thU2svqQ7A0w-J662aFRwD9I76L380">walruses in Alaska have come ashore </a>because the sea ice that they usually inhabit has melted.</p>
<p>However, some Members of Congress are fighting the EPA and the Clean Air Act, trying to protect the rights (and profits) of polluters over the American people. Already, a resolution in the Senate to strip the EPA&rsquo;s ability to regulat carbon emissions <a href="/content/murkowski-dirty-air-act-goes-down-53-47">has failed</a>, but the idea keeps rising again from the <a href="http://www.care2.com/causes/environment/blog/night-of-the-living-dead-zombie-policies-that-continue-to-walk-the-earth">legislative graveyard</a>.</p>
<p>This idea is nothing short of a mid-life crisis for the Clean Air Act. What is the point of having a Clean Air Act if it cannot ensure clean air? Curbing emissions of greenhouse gases into the air is the first step</p>
<p>While a formal bill or amendment has not been introduced, but as the election nears and rhetoric, like planet, gets increasingly hotter, expect that we will see this dangerous line of thought reappear.</p>
<p>But for now, the Clean Air Act is showing no signs of succumbing to a mid-life crisis, unless Congress forces one on it.<br />&nbsp;</p>
</div></div></div>Wed, 15 Sep 2010 22:17:41 +0000103555 at http://wilderness.orghttp://wilderness.org/blog/keeping-clean-air-act-having-mid-life-crisis#commentsDefending the Clean Air Act - Bill Meadows in the National Journalhttp://wilderness.org/blog/defending-clean-air-act-bill-meadows-national-journal
<div class="field-group-format group_meta field-group-div group-meta speed-fast effect-none"><div class="field field-name-post-date field-type-ds field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Sep 14, 2010</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-node-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/bios/staff/neil-shader">Neil Shader</a></div></div></div></div><div class="field-group-format group_image field-group-div group-image speed-fast effect-none"><div class="field field-name-field-video field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>
This week the landmark environmental law the Clean Air Act turns 40 years old, and is still going strong.&nbsp; However, some Members of Congress are trying to weaken the Clean Air Act, and limit the ability of the Environmental Protection Agency to use it to keep our skies free of pollution.&nbsp; <a href="http://energy.nationaljournal.com/2010/09/clean-air-act-defend-or-disman.php">Read more at the National Journal...</a></p>
</div></div></div>Tue, 14 Sep 2010 22:37:01 +0000103549 at http://wilderness.orghttp://wilderness.org/blog/defending-clean-air-act-bill-meadows-national-journal#commentsNight of the living dead – Bad zombie policies that continue to walk the earthhttp://wilderness.org/blog/night-living-dead-%E2%80%93-bad-zombie-policies-continue-walk-earth
<div class="field-group-format group_meta field-group-div group-meta speed-fast effect-none"><div class="field field-name-post-date field-type-ds field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Aug 10, 2010</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-node-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/bios/staff/neil-shader">Neil Shader</a></div></div></div></div><div class="field-group-format group_image field-group-div group-image speed-fast effect-none"><div class="field field-name-field-content-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://wilderness.org/sites/default/files/styles/blog_full/public/legacy/profiler/care2-pollution-istock.jpg?itok=Q9gjHbwD" alt="" title="Air pollution." /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-video field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"></div></div><div class="field field-name-media-description field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Air pollution.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-credit field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>Zombies are a hot topic in pop culture these days &mdash; zombie books, zombie television shows, and even rumors of a <a target="_blank" href="http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/2010/07/22/2010-07-22_brad_pitt_to_star_in_world_war_z_the_big_screen_adaptation_of_max_brooks_novel.html">Brad Pitt led zombie movie</a>.</p>
<p>And unfortunately, the zombie trend has reached Capitol Hill, and some bad policy ideas are crawling out of the legislative graveyard.</p>
<p>First is the <a href="murkowski-dirty-air-act-goes-down-53-47">reanimated Dirty Air Act</a>, which was <a target="_blank" href="http://www.care2.com/causes/global-warming/blog/the-murkowski-dirty-air-act-unfolds/">originally a resolution from Senator Lisa Murkowski</a> (Alaska) to strip the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/index.html">Environmental Protection Agency</a> of its ability to regulate greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide &mdash; the only way, given the Senate&rsquo;s inaction on climate legislation, currently available to limit dangerous carbon pollution from industrial sources.</p>
<p>The <a target="_blank" href="http://www.frumforum.com/congress-moves-to-handcuff-the-epa">Dirty Air Act</a> has been revived this time by <a target="_blank" href="http://rockefeller.senate.gov/">Sen. Jay Rockefeller</a> (WV). This time the act would prevent the EPA from limiting carbon pollution for two years &mdash; which is two years too many to allow free dumping of carbon pollution into our skies.</p>
<p>As the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mindy-s-lubber/the-senate-punts-reckless_b_659753.html">Senate continues to postpone meaningful action on climate change</a> &mdash; delaying until at least September &mdash; this amendment would set a dangerous precedent. By handicapping the EPA, the government agency tasked with protecting our health by protecting our clean air and water, the Dirty Air Act is an anti-health bill, inviting polluters to poison our air and water for at least two more years without any recourse whatsoever.</p>
<p><img width="300" height="198" alt="Caribou in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Courtesy USFWS." src="/sites/default/files/legacy/caribou-anwr-Alaska-fws.jpg" />Another bad idea shambling out of the halls of Congress is one that seems to be immune from any and all attempts to kill it for good: drilling for oil in the <a target="_blank" href="http://arctic.fws.gov/">Arctic National Wildlife Refuge</a>, the last, best landscape in the world, and the crown jewel of the National Wildlife Refuge System.</p>
<p>Ironically, this horrifying nightmare has been seen lurking around the House and Senate versions of bills to deal with cleaning up the oily disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, threatening one treasured landscape on a bill meant to clean up another.</p>
<p>The reasons to keep the drills out of the Arctic Refuge are numerous, ranging from the calving grounds of the legendary Porcupine caribou herd, to the polar bears that live along the coast, to the Gwich&rsquo;in people that call the Refuge their home.</p>
<p>While there are no current specific proposals to open the Refuge to the likes of BP and other oil and gas companies, this dangerous policy idea keeps clawing its way back to the surface &mdash; requiring our constant vigilance.</p>
<p>As in zombie movies, zombie bills are hard to eliminate completely. But if we stay vigilant, organized and vocal, we can make sure that the Congress never lets them roam freely on this earth.</p>
<p><strong><span style="font-size: smaller;">photos:</span></strong><span style="font-size: smaller;"><br />Air pollution.<br />Caribou in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Courtesy USFWS.</span></p>
</div></div></div>Tue, 10 Aug 2010 17:47:00 +0000103444 at http://wilderness.orghttp://wilderness.org/blog/night-living-dead-%E2%80%93-bad-zombie-policies-continue-walk-earth#comments